Growing Green

Last weekend, I built the wood grids for my square foot garden beds. It's so cool to see all of the square feet that I have to plant in. It's super organized and straightforward - just the way I like it. You can figure out how many plants of each variety that you can fit in each square foot by looking at the "thin to" spacing guide on the seed packets. If it says, thin plants to 12", you can have one plant of that type in the center of a square and that way you'll be sure that there is 12" of space all around. This is awesome, not just because you can prevent overcrowding plants (which I did last year), but also because you can maximize space as well, by planting lots of plants in one square that don't need as much room. For example, since broccoli needs 12" of space, I planted it by poking my finger into the center of one square and dropping a pinch of broccoli seeds into the little hole. On the other hand, the lettuce I planted, doesn't need as much space, so I divided the square into 4ths, poked my finger into each quarter, and planted a pinch of lettuce seeds in each one. The spinach square got nine.

I planted all those seeds in the bed that I have protected by a cloche (the temporary, plastic-covered, greenhouse-like structure that warms the soil and protects seedlings from changes in weather). I planted them on Wednesday, March 25th, the earliest I have ever planted seeds outside. Until this year, I have always planted all my seeds during Spring Break, regardless of the time and weather. I wasn't all that knowledgeable about seed life then - just planted when it was convenient for me. I even planted my zucchini seeds in April last year, which is really early since they like warm soil and warm temperatures. But somehow, they came up and survived, albeit overcrowded and a bit diseased in the end. This summer, I'll wait until it's warmer and will give them the space they need.

The seeds that I planted on Wednesday are all cool season, half-hardy crops - they can handle this weather, especially in the cozy environment of a cloche. I actually checked the temperature of the soil with my new handy soil thermometer and the soil was 50 degrees when I planted those seeds. That is actually a little on the cool side, but according to my research, most lettuce seeds can germinate at temperatures as low as 40 degrees. I checked it the next day and the temperature was up around 56 degrees, so I think we'll be OK.

So, now it's the waiting game to see which new seedlings come up. I'm waiting for:

• 2 squares of broccoli
  
• 2 squares of bok choy
• 1 square of red kale
• 1 square of 9 spinach plants
• 4 squares with 4 different varieties of lettuce
• 2 squares with 4 rainbow Swiss chard plants

Also, today I scored 4 organic strawberry plants at the farmer's market to add to my collection. Summer barbecues are looking better and better!